New York audiences will also see him in Morris's "Mosaic and United," a new work by the young German choreographer Joachim Schlomer and a glorious solo called "Pergolesi," choreographed for him by Twyla Tharp.

In each case, these older models have been thoroughly Stravinsky-ized, as in the ballet "Pulcinella"—based on what the composer incorrectly believed to be music of the 18th-century composer Giovanni Battista Pergolesi—where sliding trombones the musical equivalent of slipping on a banana peel intrude to remind us of the music's real author.

Stravinsky himself featured in the Sinfonietta's solo programme, dubbed Cover Versions, though his Suite Italienne – arranged from his ballet Pulcinella, itself arranged from originals by Pergolesi and others – is really a cover of a cover.

After lunch at a Kentucky Fried Chicken I was swept up to see a graduation recital by a talented 20-year-old tenor dressed in tails at a local music school singing Pergolesi, Mozart and Bach and then on to a museum of Nigerian history.

BROWNING: If you chose "Stabat Mater" by the Italian baroque composer Pergolesi, you might have a future in the classic-record business, and you'd be following in the path of a relatively small but sturdy classical music recording company Harmonia Mundi.